Picks are used to pluck the strings on stringed musical instruments such as those of the lute family. Referring to FIGS. 1a–c, commonly found standard picks come in a variety of shapes as well as varying configurations of thickness, size, and material (See FIG. 1a illustrating a common teardrop shape, FIG. 1b illustrating a triangle shape, and FIG. 1c illustrating a curved triangle shape.) When a string is plucked with one of these picks a single contact point interacts with the string causing the string to vibrate thereby producing a tone.
A significant number of attempts have been made to produce a pick that has multiple contact points that interact with the string in rapid succession as the result of a single pluck. One approach has been to sandwich two or more picks together with or without a spacer between each pair. FIGS. 1d and 1e are examples of such multi-contact picks using this approach. Also, U.S. Pat. Nos. 768,241; 2,221,234; 3,304,826; 3,312,137; 3,678,793; 4,226,160; 4,248,128; 4,398,444; 4,651,614; 4,790,227; 5,252,562; 5,594,189; Des 358,833; and Des 369,615, each the entirety of which is herein incorporated by reference, are all directed to such sandwiched array type multipoint picks.
Another approach has been to construct a multi-point pick of a unitary layer wherein the shape configures multiple points laterally along an edge in saw-tooth fashion. This category includes those picks that have one or more serrated edges. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,459,275; 2,481,759; 2,484,820; 4,993,301; Des 317,617; Des 395,330, each the entirety of which is herein incorporated by reference, are all directed to such saw-tooth type multipoint picks.
Other approaches are also known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,942,704, the entirety of which is herein incorporated by reference, is directed to a plurality of resilient brush bristles arranged in brush like manner and mounted on the tip of the pick U.S. Pat. No. 5,942,704, the entirety of which is herein incorporated by reference, is directed to a plurality of finger members of equal length directed radially outward along an upper edge (See FIG. 1f). U.S. Pat. No. 6,133,516, the entirety of which is herein incorporated by reference, is directed to a pick constructed of a plurality of narrow elongated pick members embedded in a finger grip (See FIG. 1h). U.S. Pat. No. 6,245,977 B1, the entirety of which is herein incorporated by reference, is directed to a pick having a pair of contact points, one nested within the other, the inner resulting from a slit along the perimeter of the outer (See FIG. 1g).
In general, the prior art multipoint picks either have only two effective contact points or are excessively bulky, especially the sandwiched array type multipoints. This is because, each additional point is the consequence of adding another whole pick and spacer to the array. The bulkiness increases the difficulty plucking a single string without touching an adjacent string. Consequently, the prior art multi-contact type of picks are known to be useful only for strumming the instrument but not for “picking”.